Yes, W is a decent and honorable person. But if he had been more competent, we probably would not have Obama now.
Let's suppose that Bush II had:
1. picked a younger vice-president, someone who could have ran in 2008.
2. really crushed Al-Qaeda, instead of just pushing them into the hills.
3. knocked out Saddam without getting us involved in a quagmire.
Then Obama would today be just another corrupt senator. And it would be a GOP president who would be picking federal judges.
Obama’s rise to power was pre-ordained. You can blame Bush all you want, but it’s pointless.
“Let’s suppose that Bush II had:
1. picked a younger vice-president, someone who could have ran in 2008.”
I doubt ANY Republican was going to win in 2008; the economy had taken a disastrous turn (with widely-publicized job losses), and many of the problems today had started already (Obama just sped up the process).
You are trying to change the past which can not be done. It is like going over the plays in a game afterwards. If we had done so and so, we would have won. The past is in the past and can not be undone. We can only change what we do itoday and in the future.
My biggest problems with him were NCLB, TARP, Karl Rove, the Haditha 8 prosecution, the Ramos/Compean prosecutions and lack of integrity to pardon those guys and Scooter Libby. On the positive side, he really loved the troops, and w/o fanfare, wrote the families of the fallen and visited the wounded. Bob
Not to mention the start of massive illegal invasions,
TSA, Homeland Security and the Patriot Act as well as spending money like a drunken sailor and bailing out crony capitalists.